Wallpapering Gourds

I thought some of you might be interested in how I wallpaper the inside of a gourd.

There are several stages to wallpapering the inside of a gourd the:-

First is to seal it. I seal it with Selleys PVA+ exterior Aquadhere glue. Allow to dry. The reason for doing this is that the gourd can leach a brown stain into the wallpaper, this prevents this from happening.

Second - Take plain white paper, I use art (acid free) paper and tear into small scraps (the size of 2-3cm piece) and glue all over the gourd surface. Do two layers. Allow to dry.

Third - Find a paper that you would like to use as the pattern for your wallpaper. The paper used for Archibald's bedroom was a paper and pattern made especially for miniature work. I chose that one because of the pattern it had no lines or defining areas. When it came to the lounge room of the room I have just finished in the hanging house I have used scrap-booking paper. These papers are interesting in that they are made up of layers. Taking these layers apart means that you can get both patterns, the one on the back and the one on the front.

This is Archibald's Bedroom and I have covered the walls with a wallpaper especially made for miniature work. This was the first time I had used wallpaper.

I is necessary to tear (you must NOT cut them or else you will see the edges) the paper in the same size as the white paper. Peel the scraps of paper apart so that you only end up with the top layer. This is not always as easy as it seems. As can be seen by the image below it is important to get rid of as much of the white undercover layer as possible.

Close up of the scraps of wall paper

Glue the paper allover the white paper.

As can be seen from the image below I have placed the pink flowers that were on the base of the paper I chose on the top of my room.

I then covered the main area of the wall with a grey pattern. The pattern I chose had lots of little blue butterflies all over it. This I loved and I tore each of them out of the paper and stuck them on over the top of it. I was quite worried that this whole concept would not work as it was a very patchy looking wallpaper but it has turned out brilliantly and I am extremely pleased with the finished effect. Even though I do find there is a gloss to the paper (because of the glue I have used) it still looks great. (When I can I will put up a photo of the finished room and you will be able to see that the wallpaper is there but not there). I am extremly pleased with it. I might be trying wallpaper paste next time as I want to use beaten mulberry bark next time.

Even though the paper looks scrappy it has turned out beautifully. I shall put up a photo of the completed room as soon as I can. 

This is the completed room. I'm extremely pleased with it. It is completely different from the style I am used to. I am now working on a little girl's bedroom. I am using wallpaper and beaten mulberry bark to decorate the walls.

Bugs, Bugs and More Bugs

BUGS!

Two finished bugs living permanently in my model.

 

I, if you haven't already worked it out I have a lot of 'stuff' (although saying that I would love a lot more) In my mixture of 'stuff' I found a selection of Jones Tones Foils. I have had them for years and now I finally have something I want to use them for. Over the past few months real live bugs, covered in beautiful metallic armor, have been coming across my path and I thought WOW!. So hear I am making bugs out of buttons, seed beads and plastic fly screen.

A selection of Jones Tones Foils. 

I like to make lots of the one thing at a time. It makes it much easier when I am decorating a house.With this in mind I painted lots of round buttons and pink ? things with the gold size The good thing about the gold size is that it stays sticky for days until it gets covered in something like gold, foil or dust. I have not used the magic Art glue that came with the foil as it is so old that it has separated and is now unusable.

Placing the button with the sticky gold size onto the back of the foil (the side that is grey or silver in colour) the foil will then stick to the gold size. I have found that I like to mix the colours. So I 'pick' little bits of colour off the foil and onto the button. If you look at the bugs below you can see that they all have two colours, if not three, all over them. I then use the white gloves that came with the gold size to press the foil onto the sticky surface this is just to make sure it has stuck. I have also found that I can re-glue with the gold size if, for some reason, the foil did not 'take' in the first place.

One point to take notice of is to make sure that the underside and especially the edges of your 'bug' needs to be 'foiled' otherwise you will see them and spoil the look of the bug.

The bugs above have had their 'leg's added. You can choose how many legs and how long the legs are for your own bug  but for mine I choose six on each side. To get the 'legs' I just removed two lengths of fly screen (the plastic kind) and allowed two to stay to hold the legs together. You can make each leg individually if you would like. Glue these sections of leg in place. I used the Tiger Grip glue.

To make the heads I used dark iridescent beads cut in half and glued in place with Tiger Grip. The beads are not perfectly cut but I found that by gluing them in place the glue helped fill up the gap between the head and the body. Then once that glue was dry I then 'foiled' the head and the gap.

I used small black seed beads to make the eyes. I would have like to use large black micro beads but I didn't have any.

Once the whole 'bug' is dry I then covered it with gloss varnish this was to protect the foil. Once this was dry I then glued some of my 'bug's onto my models. I am extremely pleased with them and I intend to make many more as I now have some 'bling'. I am also sure that the foils will be used to make lots of other creatures that will end up living in my models.

Bubbles

The iridescent bubbles I purchased yeas ago.

I was looking for bubbles like the ones I purchased years-s-s-s ago in America. I wanted to buy kilos and kilos of them but no luck at the moment.

Soo in my desperation I went looking for other types. I came across a company called Potters in Victoria.

The first packet are 3mil pale blue beads.

From Potters I received three sample of micro-spheres. I'm really pleased with these and shall be purchasing 20 kilos (the smallest they sell them in) I shall also buy the last bead as well










Using them I have (so far) made a type of fungi with blue centers and















some insect eggs on the underside of leaves.

These are a grey 2mil bead and the moment I haven't used them but I'm sure something will come up.

Now I am really pleased I have come across these beads. Years ago I started making the glass eyed fungi. I had been given the beads by someone. They were used as Teddy weights. I was unable to find them and even though these are only the smaller of what I was using it is a start.

Now I'm really pleased with these 1.70mil beads

One other thing I have made is these red fungi. These have turned out to be quite a tricky thing to get to a point where I like them. They are made using the Yates tree flower caps (these ones are from when there was a drought). I then placed silver foil over them with gold seize. Glued the micro-spheres over them. I was not happy so I covered them in red nail polish on the top and red acrylic paint in gloss glaze over the stem and base. By the way the base is made out of the lower end of the plastic cord holders of blinds. Still not happy so covered them in grey glaze. Still no so covered them in black. GOT IT!

Another persons blog - Trouvailesdujour

There are times when a person thinks they're not bad when it comes to their art and then they come across the people in the blog Trouvailesdujour and you are brought right down to earth.
Thank the heavens for the internet.

This doll was created by the Popovy Sisters.

There are soo many articles (posts) on this site that I did find it difficult to navigate around because the computer was so slow, or is it that there is SOO much information on the site that that is what is making it slow?


This sculpture, titled Attachment was created by Susie MacMurray

Anyway, in my opinion it is worth the while spending sometime looking through it all.


Miniature sets created by Paolo Ventura